This report looks at how couples share looking after children, planning and coordinating children’s activities, and helping children with remote learning. Data were collected in the AIFS Families in Australia Surveys, online surveys conducted at 4 time points in 2020 and 2021. While collected to provide insights on families’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, the research is relevant over a broader time period. Due to the nature of the data collection, these data are not representative of the Australian population. Around 85% of respondents reflected in the analysis for this report were female with a male partner.

The focus of analysis is on the gendered nature of child care. The mixed method research draws on respondents’ assessments of who, of partnered mothers and fathers, does all or more of the child care, analysing these data by a range of family characteristics. It also draws on comments collected in the survey from all partnered parents to help explain these patterns.

The findings highlight the gendered nature of child care activities. Mothers do more of the child care in the home than fathers, although just over 1 in 3 couple families share the child care equally. It is rare for fathers alone to be the ones to always or usually look after the children (around 1 in 20 fathers). Even when both work full time hours, child care activities are very gendered, although fathers’ share increases when mothers work full time.